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Vista - Where is fixmbr.exe or bootsec.exe?

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Old 06-14-2007   #1 (permalink)
ocicat


 
 

Where is fixmbr.exe or bootsec.exe?

I had successfully configured BCD to dual-boot Vista with OpenBSD, & it
worked great, but I made the mistake of installing Ubuntu which in turn
installed GRUB. At this point, I'd like to get rid of GRUB. Searching both
these communities & the Internet reveals either a bootsec.exe or fixmbr.exe
which might clean up my MBR of whatever GRUB wrote, but as I look on my Vista
partition, I don't find any utility by these names. What can I do/use to rip
GRUB out of my MBR?

Thanks.

My System SpecsSystem Spec
Old 06-14-2007   #2 (permalink)
Jane C


 
 

Re: Where is fixmbr.exe or bootsec.exe?

It's on the Vista DVD.

How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to
troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows Vista:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392/en-us

--
Jane, not plain 64 bit enabled :-)
Batteries not included. Braincell on vacation ;-)
MVP Windows Shell/User

"ocicat" <ocicat@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:21787F90-FDA5-4BC8-86F8-94C791AB1F83@microsoft.com...
>I had successfully configured BCD to dual-boot Vista with OpenBSD, & it
> worked great, but I made the mistake of installing Ubuntu which in turn
> installed GRUB. At this point, I'd like to get rid of GRUB. Searching
> both
> these communities & the Internet reveals either a bootsec.exe or
> fixmbr.exe
> which might clean up my MBR of whatever GRUB wrote, but as I look on my
> Vista
> partition, I don't find any utility by these names. What can I do/use to
> rip
> GRUB out of my MBR?
>
> Thanks.


My System SpecsSystem Spec
Old 06-14-2007   #3 (permalink)
Don


 
 

Re: Where is fixmbr.exe or bootsec.exe?

ocicat wrote:
> I had successfully configured BCD to dual-boot Vista with OpenBSD, & it
> worked great, but I made the mistake of installing Ubuntu which in turn
> installed GRUB. At this point, I'd like to get rid of GRUB. Searching both
> these communities & the Internet reveals either a bootsec.exe or fixmbr.exe
> which might clean up my MBR of whatever GRUB wrote, but as I look on my Vista
> partition, I don't find any utility by these names. What can I do/use to rip
> GRUB out of my MBR?


Before you follow Jane's advice, you need to decide if you plan to
continue multi-booting between Windows and non-Windows OS's.

If you plan to keep any non-Windows OS on your machine you should
*keep* GRUB because it will let you do that easily, whereas it's
more complicated to use the Vista MBR.

I use GRUB to multi-boot between Vista, XP, OpenBSD, linux, etc with
no problems at all.

My System SpecsSystem Spec
Old 06-15-2007   #4 (permalink)
ocicat


 
 

Re: Where is fixmbr.exe or bootsec.exe?

"Don" wrote:
> If you plan to keep any non-Windows OS on your machine you should
> *keep* GRUB because it will let you do that easily, whereas it's
> more complicated to use the Vista MBR.


For anyone else reading this thread, it's not difficult to use BCD to
multiboot non-Windows OS's through Vista. Here's a how-to that I wrote up
for the OpenBSD community:

http://www.freebsdforums.com/forums/...ad.php?t=48405

To boot Linux using BCD requires copying the appropriate partition boot
record (PBR) as described in the link above.
My System SpecsSystem Spec
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